Abstract: A method of establishing calls between an ingress MPC (the calling party) and an egress MPC (the called party) in MPOA enabled ATM based networks. The call establishment method utilizes the call request SETUP, CONNECT and CONNECT_ACK messages in creating the shortcut VCC between ingress and egress MPCs. The calling party is adapted to send a READY_IND message in a reliable manner to the called party indicating that it is ready to receive frames over the shortcut VCC. The called party starts sending data over the shortcut VCC only when it knows that the calling party is ready. The called party knows the calling party is ready upon receipt of a READY_IND message or at least one data frame on the shortcut VCC. The calling party knows that the called party is ready to receive frames when it receives the CONNECT message. Since the READY_IND message sent by the calling party may get lost, the calling party is adapted to re-send the READY_IND message repeatedly until it is certain the called party has received it.